I didn't get a call from the test centre. I had to call them to book my test so I would recommend giving them a call. It will save you a couple of weeks

David

Oh ok thanks David, I thought you couldn't call the test centres. I'll have to try and dig out the Chadderton test centre number.

It you phone the central number they will put you through. The one thingy tester said is he thought very few people phoned to ask questions prior to the test. (Most likely as there is no direct dial for them).

Cheers David, I just got through to Chadderton but no one available to answer questions. I'll wait till the middle of next week and call again. I asked whether they would contact me to book the appointment but she said I would have to keep calling to get my appointment booked. So thanks for the tip I would of been waiting for weeks if I hadn't of known.:)

OK I'm officially out of hibernation. Didn't start the car for 2 months and been putting off the IVA x2. Just because weather was crap and I had no interest in the car. Usual kind of thing for me over the winter months. Always end up doing hundreds of miles on my mountain bike when the days get this short and cold. Weird I know but there it is.

Anyway got that out of my system now so I've ended up shortening the handbrake cable 30mm as I had no adjustment and low brake effort. T**t to refit as I 'd shortened it more than I meant to. Relocated that bodged fuse so no worries there. Oh I fixed my bouncing idle and loss of cold start fast idle. I knew it was something I'd done on refitting the engine and shortening the loom but could not figure out what so I was ignoring it. Last night I figured out what it was. I'd left the TEN - GND jumper in the diags port and the diagnostics LED because I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR DIAGNOSTICS PURPOSES, how ironic! I had not realised that this had effectively disabled the ecu for ambient idle purposes. Lots of googling and the penny finally dropped. So reset the ambient idle and for good measure as I'd probably knackered the O2 sensor with all the rich idling I swapped it out for a known good one from the 1.8 engine I have. Rock solid idle now.

Oh and I made a coolant bottle to fuse box splash guard out of a tupaware box. just incase I ever overheat and short out my fuses.

Got a car cover on order and thinking of ringing the DVLA to get my date brought forward if possible.

The End.

edit oh and thread locked all the relevant threads that need it.

Glad to see you're still alive and well Chris!
IVA x2? Does that mean you've already had IVA x1?

No I haven't been yet, had a date for early Jan which I moved to end of Jan and then I moved that one to end of Feb. Paranoid if I got it legal before spring I'd be to tempted to drive it on damp roads and crash it having never driven a lightweight rear wheel drive car before.

So while I'm waiting for the test date the car bug has bit me again so I'm in the middle of a little upgrade project "off" the car. I managed to acquire a rather cheap ashcroft LSD Torsen type differential. Made a cheeky offer on ebay which was accepted.

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=102482

I did not really know what I'd let myself in for and I've had a rather steep learning curve and had to buy some new tools to do the job but I had a late mk1 1.8 differential in the shed so I've started stripping it down to clean, paint and replace all the seals. I will be replacing the the side differential bearings but leaving the pinion shaft bearings alone and just replacing the crush tube so I can setup the drag torque once the nose seal is replaced.

I know I could of bought a second hand mx5 Torsen diff off ebay but where's the fun in that and the diff was so cheap it was rude not to buy it.

Here'a a very useful video I found on youtube.


http://youtu.be/dAqAqODmcj4

Whoooof the vids a bit heavy tho:D

Oh I know. He's not the most interesting person. zzzZZZZ!